α-Asarone Maintains Protein Homeostasis Through SKN-1-Mediated Proteasome and Autophagy Pathways to Mitigate Aβ-Associated Toxicity in Caenorhabditis elegans

Acorus tatarinowii Schott (A. tatarinowii), a traditional Chinese medicine, has been widely used in the treatment of dementia, particularly AD. α-Asarone is the main active component of A. tatarinowii oil, and its neuroprotective effects and underlying molecular mechanism in AD remain unclear. In this study, we utilized different transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) AD models to investigate the neuroprotective mechanism of α-asarone in vivo. Our findings revealed that α-asarone significantly ameliorated Aβ- and tau-induced phenotypic abnormalities, including deficits in chemotaxis-related learning, hyposensitivity to exogenous serotonin, and impaired neuronal integrity. Furthermore, the α-asarone treatment effectively reduced Aβ-induced oxidative stress. Mechanistically, α-asarone reduced Aβ accumulation and maintained protein homeostasis by stimulating proteasome degradation and autophagy in an SKN-1/Nrf2-dependent manner. Our study highlights the potential of α-asarone as an SKN-1/Nrf2 activator and its capability to facilitate proteostasis, supporting its therapeutic potential for AD treatment.